Washington reportedly told Baghdad it will target armed groups that support Iran in any future conflict, as envoy Tom Barrack pressed the weapons plan and discussed the Syria pipeline
ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – Washington has told Baghdad it will use “force” against armed factions that support Iran in any future conflict, Saudi-owned Al Hadath reported, as US special envoy Tom Barrack visited the Iraqi capital.
Al Hadath said Barrack discussed bringing weapons under state control and urged Baghdad to commit to the plans, and that the visit also covered an oil pipeline to Syria. Kurdistan 24 could not independently confirm the report, and neither government has commented on it.
Barrack, the US special presidential envoy to Iraq and Syria and ambassador to Türkiye, met Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi in Baghdad on Thursday and also met Supreme Judicial Council President Faiq Zaidan and Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein, according to Iraqi media.
Barrack said Iraq under al-Zaidi is choosing “sovereignty over dependency,” and described the talks on armed groups and weapons outside government control as constructive. Neither al-Zaidi’s office nor the judicial council said whether anything was agreed, or mentioned the weapons plan, according to Iraqi media. Al-Zaidi also spoke with President Donald Trump by phone on Thursday and told him Baghdad will not let its territory be used to attack neighboring countries.
The warning comes as the US weighs new strikes on Iran after the midterm elections, and as Hussein warned Iraqi groups on Thursday against joining any Iranian retaliation, saying a new war would be a “disaster” for Iraq. Al-Zaidi’s plan sets June 30, 2027, as the deadline to place all weapons under state control, a timeline Barrack said in September that Washington and Baghdad had agreed on. Hussein told Al Jazeera that Asa’ib Ahl al-Haq and Kata’ib Sayyid al-Shuhada have agreed to arms control and that talks with Harakat al-Nujaba and Kata’ib Hezbollah continue. Kata’ib Hezbollah and Harakat al-Nujaba have refused to disarm, and Kata’ib Hezbollah said in a recent statement that no line or geography will limit its strikes.
On energy, Iraq and Syria signed a US-sponsored memorandum on July 17 to restore the pipeline linking Haditha and Baniyas on Syria’s Mediterranean coast, and Barrack has coordinated the effort, according to Iraqi media. A Syrian official said work would take up to three years. Iraq began work in May on the Basra-Haditha pipeline, planned at 2.5 million barrels a day, as it seeks routes that avoid the Strait of Hormuz, which Iran has closed to most traffic since the war began. Iraq lost about $60 billion in oil revenue because of the closure, according to Hussein.